I saw a trailer for the film based on the book he wrote, Palo Alto, and it looked like total garbage plot/acting wise, but it actually *looked* a lot better visually. This film and the one he did of the Faulkner film—haven’t seen either, just the trailers—but good lord they *look* awful—bad lighting, bad shots, a sort of dullness, a bad aping of the Coens’ lighting in O Brother/No Country, but bleached, etiolated, all energy sapped. The guy is not a director. If he wants to try, he needs to pick material that he can actually control, mold, move—not Faulkner or McCarthy!

Yeah, his whole thing w/ writing sickens me. Countless deserving people will never have their book(s) published. Yet, Franco pours them out like his directorial… junk. He’s not half-bad in films where he’s just an actor playing a James Franco character; “Spring Breakers,” “This is the End,” etc. I can even semi-tolerate his VICE stuff. But, goddamn, the rest is just shit. I agree w/ you on your points, too.